State Attorney Won`t Prosecute Ex-dania Chief

September 18, 1985|By Patti Roth, Staff Writer

No criminal charges will be filed against former Dania Police Chief Rudolf Rigo in connection with an allegation that he falsified a high school diploma to obtain his police certificate in 1972, the Broward County State Attorney`s Office said Tuesday.

Martin Jaffe, chief of the state attorney`s Organized Crime, Public Corruption and Special Prosecutions Unit, said the time limit probably has expired for prosecuting any charges that Rigo lied about the diploma on his job application.

That offense, Jaffe said, is a second-degree misdemeanor, the least serious under Florida law.

Jaffe said his investigation indicated that Rigo did not graduate from Kensington High School in New York and that Rigo altered his daughter`s diploma in order to receive his police certification from the state.

However, Jaffe said the events surrounding Rigo`s hiring as a police officer took place many years ago, when Rigo was not a public official, but merely a resident applying to be police officer.

``This is not to condone what he did,`` Jaffe said. ``At this point, he has resigned from his position, and the Bureau of Standards is doing an investigation.``

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement`s standards bureau is reviewing a complaint about Rigo that could result in the revocation of his police certification, a department spokeswoman said last week.

Rigo, 57, resigned last month, the same day the allegation about his diploma was delivered to the State Attorney`s Office.

Rigo, who had been chief since 1977, cited health reasons for his resignation and was admitted to the hospital temporarily for problems related to hypertension.

On Tuesday, Rigo said he was happy about the State Attorney`s Office decision not to prosecute, but would not comment further about the diploma.